News

April 19, 2013

Why Tax Fairness is worth fighting for

Tax Day is a reminder that working people pay more than their fair share of taxes while, all too often, wealthy and powerful special interests don’t do the same (or even pay nothing at all).

The cost of this lack of tax fairness is adding up. Across-the-board spending cuts from our austerity-obsessed Congress and moves by state lawmakers at home to raise taxes on hard-working families while simultaneously planning to cut or even eliminate taxes on the super rich and corporations proves that the People have too few champions for them in our government.

Should the Poor pay MORE than the Powerful? Champion tax fairness: text FIGHT to 235246!

Fun fight

Faced with the grim reality of North Carolina politics, this Tax Day, the NC State AFL-CIO arranged for working people to get some quality escapism and, with it, one way to settle the score between the People and the Powerful – even if it had to be done outside the political arena and inside the ring!

With a fair fight for taxes nearly impossible with corporations and the wealthy throwing their heavyweight influence around in Congress and state legislatures, the North Carolina State AFL-CIO staged today’s “Fair Fight” to spotlight the move by Tar Heel lawmakers to shift the tax burden of the state’s wealthiest and corporations onto middle- and low-income working families.

To help make a lasting impression, the AFL-CIO staged a wrestling match outside the legislative building Monday with the help of the Luchadoras. The famed, masked female wrestlers – one representing the People’s Champion the other representing the Champion of the Powerful – took their brawl to Bicentennial Mall for a lunchtime spectacle.

“It’s not just about taxes, it’s about justice and fairness in all aspects of our lives,”said MaryBe McMillan of the NC State AFL-CIO. “It’s about good public schools, clean air, and water, a free and open Democracy.”

Bitter rivals Juicy Buns and The Scrambler with the Luchadoras of Durham battled it out in a public bout in Raleigh just steps from where our state legislature is abdicating its responsibility to govern for the good of the whole.

Juicy Buns, People’s Champion, victorious!

Champion of the Powerful, The Scrambler did not fight fair – throwing elbows, drinking performance enhancing substances, and at one point enlisting the help of her minions to literally tie down the People’s Champ with bags of ill-gotten campaign cash as “Thom Tillis” and “Art Pope” looked on approvingly while trying to tempt the People to their side with wads of $100 bills.

Down but never out, the People’s Champion, Juicy Buns, rallied late in the match as chants of “People! Power!” from a crowd of about 75 supporters echoed throughout Bicentennial Mall. Juicy soon turned the tables on the tax-dodging Champion of the Powerful, sending The Scrambler and her minions and big money backers scrambling with a devastating finishing move – the Big Bomb Booty Blast!

Serious ask

As MaryBe McMillan explained to NC Policy Watch, the big lesson of the Fair Fight is that “if we join together, we can all be champions for the people, and we can win and reclaim our state.”

People power always wins in the end because we are the champions!

Politicians in Raleigh and Washington are being champions of wealthy and powerful special interests. Their way is more for the few, less for the rest – and we’re tired of it! So if you’re ready to fight for tax fairness, here’s what you can do to help:

1.Text FIGHT to 235246 to become a champion for working families in North Carolina!

I’m tired of paying the costs for the lack of tax fairness in my state and in my country. Unbalanced tax policy and cuts to critical programs are the result of politicians in Raleigh and Washington being champions of wealthy and powerful special interests instead of the people who elected them.

Well, enough is enough! Tax dodging by big corporations and wealthy individuals has to end. Can we count on you to make taxes fairer for working families?

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Who we are

The North Carolina State AFL-CIO is the largest association of local unions and union councils in North Carolina, representing over one-hundred and forty-thousand union members, fighting for good jobs, safe workplaces, workers’ rights, consumer protections, and quality public services on behalf of ALL working people.